The present invention relates in general to surgical instruments, and more particularly to manually operated surgical instruments that are intended for use in minimally invasive surgery.
Endoscopic and laparoscopic instruments currently available in the market are extremely difficult to learn to operate and use, mainly due to a lack of dexterity in their use. For instance, when using a typical laparoscopic instrument during surgery, the orientation of the tool of the instrument is solely dictated by the locations of the target and the incision, which is often referred to as the fulcrum effect. As a result, common tasks such as suturing, knotting and fine dissection have become challenging to master. Various laparoscopic instruments have been developed over the years to overcome this deficiency, usually by providing an extra articulation often controlled by a separately disposed knob. However, even with these modifications these instruments still do not provide enough dexterity to allow the surgeon to perform common tasks such as suturing at any arbitrarily selected orientation.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a laparoscopic or endoscopic surgical instrument that allows the surgeon to manipulate the tool end of the surgical instrument with greater dexterity.